The Story of Ruth is one of the clearest examples of endurance that we have in the Old Testament. Even tough God is not actively referred to in this passage there are still some great spiritual truths that can be gleaned from the story of Ruth. To begin with, a brief synopsis of the plot may be appropriate. This can than be followed by a discussion of the spiritual principles of endurance and the sustaining power of the “behind the scenes” power of God.
The tale begins as Naomi, her husband Elimelech, and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion are leaving the town of Bethlehem for Moab. They decided to leave their homeland because there was a famine. While in Moab the two sons get married. Mahlon married Ruth and Chilion married Oprah. The father dies and soon after both of his sons die leaving behind three widows. Naomi hears that the Lord has blessed her homeland and in her desperation decides to return to Bethlehem. Naomi releases her daughters- in-law from their obligation to her because she knows she can not provide for them. Initially they both refuse to leave her side but eventually Oprah relents and remains behind in Moab. Ruth's loyalty to Naomi was too great to abandon her. Naomi’s people were Ruth’s people and her god was Ruth’s god.
By this point things are beginning to build to the climax of the story. Alone with no one to look after their well being, Ruth and Naomi are alone trying to Glean enough grain behind the harvesters to survive. One day Ruth goes to the fields of Boaz to Glean. When Boaz sees her he has favor on her and sees to it that grain is purposefully left for Ruth to pick up. Things are starting to look up for Naomi and Ruth.
Not only is Boaz discretely providing for the two widows but he is also of close kin. This gives him the possibility of becoming Ruth's kinsmen redeemer. This would resolve the stories conflict and give it closure. However, there is one person that is of closer relation to the family of Elimelech than Boaz is. Boaz confronts this next-of-kin and finds him unwilling to take Ruth as his wife. This opens the door for Boaz to marry Ruth bringing the story to a close.
The focus of the current discussion is that of endurance. One of the literary techniques used to illustrate Ruth’s commitment and “stickability” is the use of Oprah as the antithesis of Ruth. Where as Oprah and Ruth both initially commit to stay with Naomi it is Ruth who is proven to have staying power. In contrast, it is Oprah who sees the bleakness of the future with no husband and no provision and remits on her commitment.
Ruth’s commitment is great but endurance is built on more than loyalty and commitment; it also requires faith. Faith can be a scary thing! It is easy to have faith when it is clear where provision will come from. However in this situation there would have been a great deal of uncertainty as to whether or not there would be any kind of provision for the women once the reached Bethlehem. Ruth could have made the same choice as Oprah despite her previous commitment but instead she had faith that there would be provision once they reached Bethlehem.
It is in Ruth’s faith that we can see the “behind the scenes” power of God. It is my assumption (and somewhat a basic point of personal theology) that God likes to work by activating our faith. Faith is like potential that God can turn into action. In the case of Ruth, as in the case of many Christians today, God chose not to work manifestly but in the back ground through others in the community and through circumstance. If the point were to emphasize the manifest power of God one would expect to see some great prophet come into the picture and work a miracle such as the multiplication of foodstuffs. Instead, what we see is the power of God to lead Ruth to a particular filed to glean for grain and his power to move a heart to compassion. It is not that I don’t recognize the power of God to perform miracles today. However, I do feel that God is willing to do so much more for us as a result of our level of faithfulness. In fact, he may be moving among our situations and circumstances even now. How sad it would be to miss out on recognizing the work of God in our lives because we are so caught up in the manifest instead of recognizing the power of God in the seemingly mundane aspects of our lives.
In conclusion, the book of Ruth can serve to illustrate the principle of endurance and consistency. By examining the themes and the action within the book a multi-dimensional model can be constructed for the concept of endurance. The concept of endurance addresses issues of commitment / loyalty, faith, and recognition. Commitment refers to an initial decision and the loyalty, or tenacity, you have to that decision. Faith is the measure of our reliance on God to provide and sustain us. The concept of recognition is tied up in the cliché “give credit where credit is due”. We must recognize that God has done the work through us and not ourselves. All of these components come together to comprise endurance and consistency. The question is will we endure, or will some where along the line will we lose site of the goal and be disqualified for the race?
Jeffrey D Thompson
9/21/1999
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
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